A motor vehicle fascia panel commonly contains at least one duct for air distribution, which is arranged to be supplied with a stream of processed air drawn from a heating and ventilating, and/or air conditioning, apparatus, and to deliver this processed air towards outlet ports which are open in selected locations in the cabin of the vehicle.
These air outlets normally include deicing vents for deicing and/or demisting the windscreen of the vehicle, and, where appropriate, side windows of the vehicle. The vents also include ventilators which are disposed on a front part of the fascia panel, and which consist of side ventilators and at least one central ventilator.
Most fascia panels contain a set of ducts, which are generally made of plastics material and which are interposed between the heating and ventilating, and/or air conditioning, apparatus and the various outlet vents.
The deicing and/or demisting vents are generally fed through ducts made of plastics material which are fixed under the armature of the fascia panel, and which are connected to a diffuser, usually again of plastics material, which is also fixed under the armature of the fascia panel, being adapted to be connected to the outlet of the heating and ventilating and/or air conditioning apparatus.
Similarly, the ventilators are generally fed through further ducts of plastics material, which are assembled mechanically and fixed under the armature of the fascia panel, being connected to a further diffuser.
Thus, the diffusion of air in such fascia panels of known types necessitates the provision of a large number of ducts and connections interposed between the heating and ventilating, and/or air conditioning, apparatus and the various air outlet vents. This gives rise to a number of drawbacks, namely: possible leaks due to imperfect connections, air noise (due to vibrations of the walls of the tubes), heat losses, aerodynamic losses, a proliferation of components, the need to provide a considerable amount of space within the fascia panel, a long and complicated fitting process, and a consequent high production cost.
It is also known, from the publication DE-3 818 666, to provide a fascia panel in which an air distribution duct is incorporated. This duct is made in the form of a single component which is applied to the fascia panel. Such a known arrangement does indeed enable the number of components to be reduced, but on the other hand it still has most of the disadvantages mentioned above.
None of the criteria for obtaining a fascia panel incorporating one or more air ducts has yet been able to be achieved, having regard in particular to the problems raised by the process of moulding hollow components of complex forms.